Spotlight On Success: Kona Commons

SPOTLIGHT ON SUCCESS NEW SPACES FOR NEW TENANTS AT KONA COMMONS

Maryl Group transforms former Sports Authority into six shell areas for new retailers, including Hawaii Island’s first Old Navy

BY DAVID PUTNAM

The former Sports Authority at Kona Commons Shopping Center in Kailua-Kona has undergone a major conversion, with the 40,000-square-foot area being divided into six shell spaces for new tenants.

“During construction, the global pandemic situation surrounding COVID-19 occurred, which made inter-island travel and procurement of overseas material challenging,” says Tim Choi, project manager for general contractor Maryl Group. “Collaboration between the Maryl Group project team, construction manager and architect was great.

“We were able to develop a working relationship between all parties that resulted in a true collaborative project. Any questions and issues were resolved Tim Choi collectively and timely, resulting in a more efficient team.”

Choi says new tenants of “Building A,” constructed in 2008, include Hawaii Island’s first Old Navy. Others are Verizon and Island Naturals’ new grocery store. They were expected to start their build-outs in October.

The scope of Maryl’s work, he adds, included exterior and interior demolition, structural steel framing, re-coating of membrane and silicone roofing, new storefront systems, aluminum canopies, framed gypsum board demising walls, EIFS (exterior insulation finishing system), stone veneer tile, a fire sprinkler system, plumbing, electrical and HVAC.

Choi says the project for MK Kona Commons LLC—a venture by local developers The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group—broke ground at the end of November 2019 and was completed on July 31, 2020.

“As a trusted partner, Maryl did a great job helping us

A new front was added for the new retail spaces at Kona Commons.

reposition an existing space to expand our retail offerings to the Kailua-Kona community,” says Josh Stinson, vice president of development and construction at MacNaughton.

Choi says a major challenge on the project was “the removal of five existing concrete tilt-up panels—approximately 25 feet wide and 29 feet high, weighing over 30 tons each—at the front of the building in order to build-out the six new storefront tenant spaces.

“The tilt-up panels were supporting the approximately 200 lineal feet of roof support, so a shoring plan was engineered to support the roof while the tilt-up panels were removed and the new structural system was installed.”

He adds that the “sequence of the removal of the five existing tilt-up panels was the subject of many internal meetings as it was a major milestone and posed a significant engineering challenge. There were several different

The old Sports Authority marquee

Job Tasks

• full gut/demo of the interior flooring, finishes, electrical fixtures, plumbing • removal of five existing tilt-up panels • slab-on-grade concrete • new sidewalks and landscape planters • structural steel posts/columns • basalt stone veneer tile • silicone roofing: APOC system • AC paving • steel doors and frames / finish hardware • aluminum canopies and awnings: B&C Awnings • welded wire plant screen: Greenscreen • dock leveler: Kelley • overhead coiling door: Cookson • paint: Sherwin Williams • extruded aluminum fins: RDS • storefront / glazing: Old Castle • new plumbing lines, water meters, grease interceptor • fire sprinkler system • new electrical lines, electrical fixtures • EIFS: Sto Corp. • siding and trim: Hardie • HVAC rooftop units (RTUs): York

The shells for retail spaces begin to take shape.

ways the task could be accomplished and the team worked closely together to develop the final plan. In the end, the task was accomplished safely and several days ahead of schedule. The team also continued to travel in spite of the ongoing pandemic.”

In addition to the new front façade of the building for the six new tenant storefronts, Choi says other standout features include both EIFS and siding storefronts as well as exterior stone veneer tile accents and aluminum canopies/awnings.

Maryl Group utilized “cloud-based

New exterior walls were installed.

software Plangrid to be able to pull up plans on the fly on the field with iPads, as well as organize new construction plan sheets as we got them throughout construction to ensure we are using the most up-to-date plan sheets,” Choi says.

He lauds the work by many of the project team, including Maryl’s Derek Kong as project superintendent for “keeping the job on schedule by

Thank You Maryl Group Construction! It was great to have been part of your team on this project.

Kona Commons

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adjusting to existing site conditions and re-sequencing work to accommodate overseas material delivery challenges. And Eric Wong (project engineer) did an amazing job keeping up with RFIs and ensuring material was fabricated correctly. He was involved in the estimate as well, so he was involved from start to finish.”

Along with Stinson, Kong and Wong, Choi says key members of the project team were Dio Pilar of MC Architects and Garon Nobriga of P3 Management as construction manager.

Among the subcontractors, Choi praised the efforts of JD Painting & Decorating and IG Steel.

“JD Painting & Decorating was able to mobilize within a couple of weeks, and produced a quality finish. They were very easy to work with, as always, from start to finish,” he says. “IG Steel was another team player that worked diligently and collaboratively with us as we worked through finalizing the steel dimensions with various existing site conditions.”

And, Choi adds, “special thanks also goes out to Nancy Sakamoto, the property manager at Kona Commons Shopping Center who was always available to answer any questions and was able to accommodate our utility outage requests with the existing tenants with no issues on top of various other needs we had throughout construction,” Choi says.

“The owner (MK Kona Commons) also supported us through material procurement issues due to the ongoing pandemic. They were very understanding and supportive of the situation.”